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Variance trading and market price of variance risk

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  • Bondarenko, Oleg

Abstract

This paper develops a new approach for variance trading. We show that the discretely-sampled realized variance can be robustly replicated under very general conditions, including when the price can jump. The replication strategy specifies the exact timing for rebalancing in the underlying. The deviations from the optimal schedule can lead to surprisingly large hedging errors. In the empirical application, we synthesize the prices of the variance contract on S&P 500 index over the period from 01/1990 to 12/2009. We find that the market variance risk is priced, its risk premium is negative and economically very large. The variance risk premium cannot be explained by the known risk factors and option returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Bondarenko, Oleg, 2014. "Variance trading and market price of variance risk," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 180(1), pages 81-97.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:econom:v:180:y:2014:i:1:p:81-97
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconom.2014.02.001
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    Cited by:

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    2. Kaeck, Andreas & Rodrigues, Paulo & Seeger, Norman J., 2017. "Equity index variance: Evidence from flexible parametric jump–diffusion models," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 85-103.
    3. Chris Kenyon & Andrew Green & Mourad Berrahoui, 2015. "Which measure for PFE? The Risk Appetite Measure, A," Papers 1512.06247, arXiv.org.
    4. Bu, Ruijun & Fu, Xi & Jawadi, Fredj, 2019. "Does the volatility of volatility risk forecast future stock returns?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 16-36.
    5. Faria, Gonçalo & Kosowski, Robert & Wang, Tianyu, 2022. "The Correlation Risk Premium: International Evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    6. Johannes Rauch & Carol Alexander, 2016. "Tail Risk Premia for Long-Term Equity Investors," Papers 1602.00865, arXiv.org.
    7. Stamatis Leontsinis & Carol Alexander, 2017. "Arithmetic variance swaps," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 551-569, April.
    8. Schneider, Paul, 2015. "Generalized risk premia," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 487-504.
    9. Alexander, Carol & Rauch, Johannes, 2021. "A general property for time aggregation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 291(2), pages 536-548.
    10. Gonzalez-Perez, Maria T., 2015. "Model-free volatility indexes in the financial literature: A review," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 141-159.
    11. Konstantinidi, Eirini & Skiadopoulos, George, 2016. "How does the market variance risk premium vary over time? Evidence from S&P 500 variance swap investment returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 62-75.
    12. Aşty Al-Jaaf, 2022. "Dividend predictability and higher moment risk premia," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 83-99, March.
    13. Recchioni, Maria Cristina & Iori, Giulia & Tedeschi, Gabriele & Ouellette, Michelle S., 2021. "The complete Gaussian kernel in the multi-factor Heston model: Option pricing and implied volatility applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(1), pages 336-360.
    14. Sebastian A. Gehricke & Jin E. Zhang, 2018. "Modeling VXX," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(8), pages 958-976, August.
    15. Carol Alexander & Johannes Rauch, 2017. "The Aggregation Property and its Applications to Realised Higher Moments," Papers 1709.08188, arXiv.org.
    16. Bollerslev, Tim & Todorov, Viktor & Xu, Lai, 2015. "Tail risk premia and return predictability," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 113-134.
    17. Petar Sabtchevsky & Paul Whelan & Andrea Vedolin & Philippe Mueller, 2017. "Variance Risk Premia on Stocks and Bonds," 2017 Meeting Papers 1161, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    18. K. Victor Chow & Wanjun Jiang & Bingxin Li & Jingrui Li, 2020. "Decomposing the VIX: Implications for the predictability of stock returns," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 645-668, November.
    19. Seungmook Choi & Hongtao Yang, 2019. "Model-Free Implied Volatility under Jump-Diffusion Models," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 16, pages 1-14, May.
    20. Carol Alexander & Johannes Rauch, 2016. "Model-Free Discretisation-Invariant Swap Contracts," Papers 1602.00235, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2016.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Variance risk; Option valuation; Risk-neutral density; Stochastic volatility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing

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